Motor racing-Hamilton set to shine - with Olympic torch run

LONDON, July 2 Next Monday will be a day to
remember for Lewis Hamilton, regardless of who wins his home
British Grand Prix the day before.

McLaren's 2008 Formula One world champion is due to run with
the London Olympic torch, giving him another moment to shine and
the chance of a double celebration if he can also win at
Silverstone.

Hamilton was invited to carry the torch through Stevenage,
the commuter town 50km north of London where he was born and
grew up, but one glance at the race calendar made that a
non-starter.

The 27-year-old has his hands otherwise engaged when the
flame is in town around lunchtime on Sunday - just before the
start of a race he has every hope of winning - so it will have
to be Monday instead at another location.

The millionaire Monaco resident, who grew up in local
authority social housing before moving away from Stevenage early
in his racing career, said it would be "an incredibly proud
moment" anyway.

"I am so honoured to have been asked to do it. I never in a
million years would have thought I'd get to do something so
cool," Hamilton told Reuters.

"I have no idea where I'll be running but it's great to be
the one."

Monday's leg of the relay, which culminates in London for
the opening of the Games on July 27, visits Milton Keynes,
Buckingham, Bicester and Oxford - all within easy reach of
Silverstone.

GOOD WEEKEND

Hamilton will do all he can to make sure Sunday ends in a
blaze of glory with the Briton seeking victory in the ninth race
of the season in front of one of the most passionate crowds in
motor racing.

The 2008 British Grand Prix winner needs above all to reel
in Ferrari's championship leader Fernando Alonso, who is 23
points ahead of him after winning in Valencia to snatch the
lead.

That race was a miserable one for Hamilton, who was punted
out on the penultimate lap by Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado while
defending third place, but he has turned his back on that
disappointment.

"Just excitement, sheer excitement to get back on it, to get
back to where I was," was how the Briton, winner in Canada last
month, described his feelings as he looked ahead to being back
at Silverstone.

"It's just the amount of people that turn up, the fans and
the roar and the atmosphere that they are able to create,"
added Hamilton, who spent Sunday at the Goodwood Festival of
Speed in southern England with singer girlfriend Nicole
Scherzinger.

"If none of those fans were there, it would be so boring.
They make the whole weekend. It's not the Formula One cars, it's
the fans."
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by John O'Brien)